# Mike Stone A Georgia Southern Baptist pastor (Emmanuel Baptist Church, Blackshear, GA — pastored since 2007) and the principal **2021 [[Conservative Baptist Network]]-aligned candidate** for [[Southern Baptist Convention]] president. The 2021 SBC presidential election — held in Nashville June 15-16, 2021 — was the first national test of the CBN insurgency's institutional reach. Stone narrowly lost in the second-ballot runoff to Ed Litton (52% to 48%, ~600 votes). The closeness of the race substantially raised the CBN's institutional profile and was widely interpreted as a sign that the SBC's center of gravity had moved further rightward than convention leadership had previously believed. Stone's significance in the [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] runs through his **2021 candidacy** and the broader CBN organizational role he has played since. As CBN steering-committee member and platform candidate, Stone has been one of the most-prominent public faces of the SBC-internal CN-aligned insurgency. The 2021 campaign substantially defined the contours of the contemporary CBN-vs-establishment-evangelical fight: Stone's platform emphasized strict complementarianism, anti-CRT positioning, opposition to "social justice gospel" framing, and a more confrontational political-cultural posture than the establishment-evangelical alternative offered. After the 2021 loss, Stone has continued to operate as a prominent voice in CBN-aligned circles, including ongoing podcast and conference engagement, and has remained on the SBC Executive Committee. For the Right Wing KB, Stone is the **2021 platform candidate** of the CBN insurgency — analytically informative as the figure through whom the network's institutional reach was first publicly tested. Subsequent CBN-aligned candidacies ([[Tom Ascol]] in 2024) have taken a similar form; tracking these across cycles is part of tracking the SBC's longer-term institutional direction. ## Biography Mike Stone has served as **Senior Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church** in **Blackshear, Georgia** since **2007** — a rural South Georgia congregation. His theological education is in the Southern Baptist seminary system. He has served on the **SBC Executive Committee** — the denomination's governing board between annual meetings — giving him institutional-insider status within the convention's administrative apparatus. ## Conservative Baptist Network Role Stone has been a **steering-committee member** of the [[Conservative Baptist Network]] since its founding — the CBN being the organizational vehicle through which the [[Tom Ascol]] / [[Founders Ministries]] / SBC-right insurgency has sought to shift the denomination's institutional direction. His platform within the CBN has emphasized strict complementarianism, opposition to [[Critical Race Theory]] in SBC seminaries and agencies, rejection of "social justice gospel" framing, and a more confrontational political-cultural posture than the establishment-evangelical alternative. ## 2021 SBC Presidential Campaign The **June 15–16, 2021** SBC annual meeting in **Nashville** was the first national electoral test of the CBN insurgency. Stone ran as the CBN-aligned candidate for SBC president against **Ed Litton** (a pastor from Mobile, Alabama representing the establishment-evangelical center) and several other candidates. In the **second-ballot runoff**, Litton won **52% to Stone's 48%** — a margin of approximately **600 votes** out of ~15,000 cast. The closeness of the result was itself the story. Pre-election assumptions had been that the SBC's institutional center would hold comfortably; the near-miss demonstrated that the CBN had substantially more convention-floor support than establishment leaders had expected and that the denomination's center of gravity had shifted rightward faster than many observers believed. ## Post-2021 Activity After the 2021 loss, Stone has continued as a prominent voice in CBN-aligned circles — participating in podcasts, conferences, and SBC-internal organizational work. His public positioning on [[Christian Nationalism]] has been **more guarded than [[William Wolfe]]'s explicit embrace** but has not rejected the label — occupying the tactical middle ground where many CBN-aligned pastors operate: sympathetic to CN policy goals without adopting the explicit doctrinal label. Stone's 2021 candidacy set the template for subsequent CBN-aligned presidential bids, including [[Tom Ascol]]'s 2024 candidacy — each testing the insurgency's growing institutional reach through the convention's annual presidential-election mechanism. ## KB Significance Stone is the **2021 platform candidate** of the CBN insurgency — the figure through whom the network's institutional reach was first publicly measured. The 52-48 result is one of the most analytically significant data points in the KB's SBC coverage: it demonstrated that the CBN-vs-establishment-evangelical fight is not a fringe insurgency but a closely-contested institutional power struggle. Tracking Stone alongside Ascol and subsequent CBN-aligned candidacies maps the SBC's longer-term institutional trajectory. ## See Also - [[Conservative Baptist Network]] - [[Tom Ascol]] - [[Founders Ministries]] - [[Southern Baptist Convention]] - [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]]